Donald Ray Pollock Quotes

Quotes about:

• Some people were born just so they could be buried.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  People, Born, Buried

  Donald Ray Pollock (2011). “The Devil All the Time”, p.66, Random House

  46 Copy quote

• Unless he had whiskey running through his veins, Willard came to the clearing every morning and evening to talk to God. Arvin didn't know which was worse, the drinking or the praying. As far back as he could remember, it seemed that his father had fought the Devil all the time.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Running, Morning, Father

  "Donald Ray Pollock On Finding Fiction Late In Life". Interview with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. July 26, 2011.

  15 Copy quote

• I'm beginning to believe that anything I do to extend my life is just going to be outweighed by the agony of living it.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Believe, Agony, Life Is

  4 Copy quote

• The humor I came up with is, for the most part, a bit crude or guttural, and many people aren't going to get it or enjoy it, but some do, and that means a lot to me - to know that I made someone laugh.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Mean, People, Laughing

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I didn't feel that so much as an outsider when I started writing; I've felt that way all my life. I don't know, man; I guess I was just wired wrong. When I was growing up, I always wanted to be somebody else and live somewhere else. I've always felt a little uncomfortable around people. And I'm not trying to romanticize this, because it wasn't romantic. I wasn't trying to be a rebel; I just always felt a little out of it. I think that's why it's pretty easy for me to identify with people living on the margins.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Growing Up, Writing, Men

  Source: www.avclub.com

  6 Copy quote

• Look, girls don't care how many push-ups you can do. They just want to get high and wear flowers in their hair. Maybe steal a car.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Girl, Flower, Hair

  6 Copy quote

• For example, if it's a sad scene, I need to feel that way, at least to a slight degree and for a short while, to get it right. Which is why I sometimes listen to music when I'm revising. Music creates moods for me quicker than any other medium.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Degrees, Example, Needs

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• I really have no idea what the French think of my characters, or why The Devil All the Time did so well there.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Character, Thinking, Ideas

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• If a person does this for just a couple of years and discovers that it just isn't for him, that's okay. At least he can move on knowing that he gave it his best shot.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Couple, Moving, Years

  Source: therumpus.net

  6 Copy quote

• I spent thirty-two years in a paper mill in southern Ohio, and before that I worked in a meatpacking plant and a shoe factory.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Ohio, Years, Shoes

  "An Open Letter to Joe the Plumber from Don the Factory Worker" by Donald Ray Pollock, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 17, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• Knockemstiff is a collection of short stories set in the holler of the same name in southern Ohio where I grew up. I tried to link the stories together through the place and some recurring characters.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Character, Ohio, Names

  4 Copy quote

• Though there are still many good people out there in the world, it seems that they're vastly outnumbered by the stupid, selfish, violent ones.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Selfish, Stupid, People

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• When I turned fifty, I decided to quit the mill and go to graduate school.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  School, Fifty, Quitting

  "An Open Letter to Joe the Plumber from Don the Factory Worker" by Donald Ray Pollock, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 17, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• I sort of like writing about weird characters, I guess.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Writing, Character

  4 Copy quote

• I was always a big reader, even when everything was bad and miserable.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Miserable, Bigs, Reader

  4 Copy quote

• I remember a class I taught at Ohio State where I assigned a Mary Gaitskill story, which really wasn't that bad, and I had this one girl refuse to read it. But better that reaction than no reaction at all.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Girl, Ohio State, Class

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• A lot of people get the wrong impression, think there's something romantic or tragic about hitting bottom.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Thinking, People, Hitting Bottom

  4 Copy quote

• Michael Koryta is an amazingly talented writer, and I rank The Prophet as one of the sharpest and superbly plotted crime novels I've read in my life.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Crime Novels, Crime, Prophet

  4 Copy quote

• J.R. Angelella is a truly gifted writer. Zombie is one of the smartest, strangest, and most beautifully crafted coming-of-age stories you will ever encounter.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Gifted Writers, Zombie, Age

  4 Copy quote

• Nostalgia is partly illusion in that we remember things differently as we get older, etc. But that doesn't mean, when historians look back on the 1950s, say, from the year 2090, it won't be judged as a saner, slower, less narcissistic, more family-focused, and economically secure time.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Mean, Years, Looks

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• The Oxys filled holes in me I hadn't realized were empty. It was, at least for those first few months, a wonderful way to be disabled. I felt blessed.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Blessed, Way, Months

  4 Copy quote

• Id always been a big reader, and I loved books, and I always thought writing would be a great way to get by in the world.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Book, Writing, Would Be

  4 Copy quote

• I'm not sure what the proper label might be, or the most accurate one, but someone once called my stuff Southern Ohio Gothic and I thought that was fair.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Ohio, Southern, Labels

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Part of the reason might be that I was born in 1954 and I look upon my youth with great fondness, like many old men. And, though my work doesn't focus much on good things, I see that period as America's heyday. True, we had many problems, like racism and Vietnam, but we still weren't quite as nuts as we seem to be now.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Men, Nuts, America

  Source: therumpus.net

  7 Copy quote

• It was really just the name that inspired me: Rainsboro. It's located near Rocky Fork State Park. I have probably driven through that little place a thousand times, but, in that weird way my mind works sometimes, one particular evening it just hit me the right way, I guess. Created a mood more than anything else. And then I started thinking about a woman and her young son who end up there.

  Donald Ray Pollock

  Son, Thinking, Names

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

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